Poll -- Best Retro, Old School (OSR) Rule Set
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Poll: What is the Best Old School (OSRIC) Rule Set?

Basic Fantasy RPG 9%       9%  [ 4 ]
Castles & Crusades 28%       28%  [ 12 ]
Swords & Wizardry 23%       23%  [ 10 ]
Labyrinth Lord 12%       12%  [ 5 ]
White Box RPG 5%       5%  [ 2 ]
I want my, I want my, I want my B/X/C 23%       23%  [ 10 ]
Total votes : 43

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Post Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 6:30 pm 
 

I guess I shouldn't have mentioned the religious-based thing.

I know we need to steer clear of religion & politics on this forum.


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Post Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:02 pm 
 

Keith the Thief wrote:But I agree that a Harry Potter RPG could
give D&D a run for its money


Quite impossible.  Totally impossible.

The Harry Potter franchise rests upon stories about children and childish adults who do not really think about any of their actions.  That's why a band of dark wizards cannot seem to catch or beat a trio of kids who do the least logical thing in every situation.  It's also why every other wizard in Britain cannot beat a dozen dark wizards...or do anything else aside from failing to respond to the most obvious evil plans.

Even Dumbledore cannot seem to act logically:

"Um...let me get this straight...  You're the most powerful wizard around.  You don't even need a wand.  You defeated magical-Hitler Grindlewald one-on-one when he was carrying the uber-death wand.  Voldemort is terrified of you...and you needed a baby to defeat him the first time?  Why don't you just hunt his ass down, fry him and dump his corpse in the Minster of Magic's office?"

"It's not that simple, you see.  No one knows where he is."

"Dude...in the last book, Voldemort sends his minions to instantly appear whenever anyone even says his name!  Aside from the most obvious tactic of deliberately saying 'Voldemort' and then horribly ambushing and killing Voldemorts minions when they pop in...why the hell isn't Voldemort afraid to say your name?"

"Well, you see..."

"Why do you allow dark wizards? Why haven't you been working on a spell that will cause anyone anywhere who uses dark magic to have all of his internal organs instantly disapparated to Southeat Asia?"

"But, love is the strongest..."

"Do you have any idea how many people you allowed to die by failing to confront the Minister of Magic?  If you had just killed the Minister of Magic, declared yourself Overlord for Life and ordered all wizards to stop accusing Harry Potter and start hunting Voldemort, do you have any idea how many wizards would now be alive?"

"Well, I..."

"Never mind.  Go away, you imbecile!"

In an RPG, player-character Harry Potters would never be caught off guard by NPC Draco Malfoys.  Draco and his oversized friends would eat minor curses from the entire Gryffindor house until they cried for mercy and broke their own wands.

House Slytherin would respond...in a curse war big enough to shatter the walls of Hogwarts.  The wizard school would look like a WWI battlefield with midget wizards taking cover in trenches, wearing curse-repelling hats and going "over the top" to massacre their school chums!

Sounds exactly like an episode of Knights of the Dinner Table.  There was an episiode in one of the early KOTD comics in which the gaming group played the spy game Hacknoia.  The first session went to hell when the players spent the entire time hunting and killing each other.  The second session featured the players shooting their way into Canada and blasting about the Great White North with automatic weapons.

That is exactly how a Harry Potter RPG would play out.

No chance.  None.


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Post Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 10:55 pm 
 

FormCritic wrote:"Dude...in the last book, Voldemort sends his minions to instantly appear whenever anyone even says his name!  Aside from the most obvious tactic of deliberately saying 'Voldemort' and then horribly ambushing and killing Voldemorts minions when they pop in...why the hell isn't Voldemort afraid to say your name?"


Absolutely LOL funny.
And I agree with every one of your points.

So, why do I still feel like it'd be a great RPG?
It took a few minutes for the hamster wheel to
start turning.

At first I thought it might be lesser characters,
like Hagrid.  But it's not about character for me.

It's setting.

Hogwarts and the British prep school genre
have an intoxicating hold on our culture.
And on me.
I'm drawn to it.

Again, every argument you make is completely valid.

And sure, I could build a Hogwarts campaign within
D&D, but I'd rather enjoy something  sanctioned by
the Harry Potter franchise.
I think it'd be cool.


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Post Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 3:20 am 
 

FormCritic wrote:Quite impossible.  Totally impossible.

That is exactly how a Harry Potter RPG would play out.


I utterly disagree. The gamers attracted to a HP rpg would not be the same gamers who'd want to destroy the nature of the rpg anymore than the gamers attracted to a LotR game would destroy it by having Frodo ride a giant eagle right into mount doom to destroy the ring in less than a week's time after discovery. Or by simply saying "Heya, Valar? Destroy this ring, ok?"

There are a lot of people who would love to role-play within the confined narrative tropes of a HP-themed story and who would gladly act deliberately "stupid" to enjoy the story being told.

joe b.


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Post Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 4:07 am 
 

Traveller wrote:It's MediaFire I'm guessing. If you do encounter problems, PM me your email address (if it isn't already in your profile) and I'll send you a copy that way.


PM sent, thanks!


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Post Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 11:35 am 
 

Keith the Thief wrote:I guess I shouldn't have mentioned the religious-based thing.
I know we need to steer clear of religion & politics on this forum.

Yeah.
Some people take these types of games quite seriously.
On one of the other islands they have their own house rules, and their spell tables include Mick's Mechanical Kneecaps and Adam's Armaghty Fireball.
jgbrowning wrote:I utterly disagree. The gamers attracted to a HP rpg would not be the same gamers who'd want to destroy the nature of the rpg anymore than the gamers attracted to a LotR game would destroy it by having Frodo ride a giant eagle right into mount doom to destroy the ring in less than a week's time after discovery. Or by simply saying "Heya, Valar? Destroy this ring, ok?"

Agree. Horses for courses. I haven't come accross many D&Ders who play Bunnies & Burrows, but there are B&B players out there who prefer other games systems. Harry Potter fits more with the flopsy-bunny gamer than it does with the hack-and-slash gamer, or the talk-like-your-charater gamer.


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Post Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 1:34 pm 
 

mbassoc2003 wrote:On one of the other islands they have their own house rules, and their spell tables include Mick's Mechanical Kneecaps and Adam's Armaghty Fireball.


Don't forget Bill's Bodacious Barfs and Frank's Frightening Farts.  Those spells are lethal!   8O  :wink:


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Post Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 1:52 pm 
 

<<brrrrrrapppp>>

  


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Post Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 2:30 pm 
 

ExTSR wrote:<<brrrrrrapppp>>


I suspect that there is no saving throw, either...


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Post Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 5:49 pm 
 

Castles & Crusades is winning the poll so far.

What does that mean?

Does it mean you folks prefer to play C&C over the others??
Or you prefer to collect C&C over the others?

Or a little of both?


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Post Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 8:33 pm 
 

Don't get giddy.  :D

Castles and Crusades is currently leading the pack with 11 votes.

One would expect about that given that:

a)  Some of the people who worked on it are here.

b)  It's been around for a while longer than the others.

c)  It is supported by a relatively well-known company.

Some proponents of C&C here on the Acaeum have argued that it is not an OSR product at all.  They bristled at the concept of C&C being a "retro-clone."  I did not understand their counter-arguments.  Perhaps they will post them here.


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Post Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 8:38 pm 
 

afaik:

Most retroclones are designed to either precisely emulate an RPG system of the past or to do so with 'minor improvements' (ie changed to suit the author's taste).

C&C was designed using liberties afforded by the OGL but as a separate game, to capture the flavor but not the specifics (mechanics, monsters, whatever) of an earlier time. It's not a clone/homage/pastiche/whatever. And it's quite well done and enjoys the best pro support (discounting fan creations for the moment, tho they also are important) of all the retro-style games.

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Post Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 8:47 pm 
 

Frank pretty much hit it. To me, a clone is an attempt to create the same game -- allow people to publish using this new one, but subtly imply that it's really for another one, despite being almost exactly the same.

C&C does not do that. It is a game on its own, but wants to play like it could have been the game from back then... but is not.

Somewhat subtle, I suppose, but definitely enough for me to not consider it a clone.

I just noticed how the poll is a little funny. Its asking which is the best OSRIC  but there was no option to select OSRIC.


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Post Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:10 pm 
 

Time for write-in votes!

Get OSRIC here.
Right now. Yes really.
Free. :)


(and btw, THIS is why I once mistakenly thought OSRIC was published by Ronin, a datum for which I have been repeatedly dissed. Not my fault; just insufficient research and short on time.)

  

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Post Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:17 am 
 

Thought I would let you guys know about at least the quickest OSR publisher.  I decided to pickup LotFP new modules Tower of the Stargazer, Weird New World, and Hammers of the Gods combo pack.  Ordered and paid on Fri, these were shipped Mon and arrived from Finland to Canada on Thurs!  Maybe this is more a testament to the Finnish post office but just to compare I'm still waiting on some stuff I ordered a week before from here in North America.  Anyways word of warning the guy is off on vacation next week so wait till next Thurs/Fri if you are thinking of ordering anything if you want the Johnny on the spot shipping.

I wasn't going to buy the LotFP game but these have convinced me to go for a copy.  The adventures themselves have some great themes, mood, and settings.   Quality and craftsmanship is very nice with color cardstock covers, maps, and illustrations including a Peter Mullen piece on one of the covers.  Hopefully I'm going to be a player in one or two of them. :)

Edit: for typo in "LotFP".


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Post Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:38 am 
 

Not a retro game or clone per say, but my vote for best rules would be for some musings by a fellow called Jason Cone titled Philotomy's OD&D Musings over at http://www.philotomy.com/ .  These are a combination of distilled knowledge from Knights&Knaves Ale House and I guess his own thoughts and experiences running OD&D from the 3 LBB only.  I have most of the OSR clones and a few retro games like C&C and Jason Vey's Spellcraft & Swordplay, but these musings have helped my understanding and appreciation of OD&D more than anything else.

Now you can also download all these musing including a nice cover and print them out into your own digest sized sized supplement:

http://www.grey-elf.com/dnd/

Scroll down to the very bottom under "Other D&D Resources".  Pickup the other booklets too ...it's all great stuff including the "Forbidden Lore" booklet for integrading D6 Chainmail rules into OD&D combat. :)


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Post Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 12:13 pm 
 

Ak'Ptui wrote:Not a retro game or clone per say, but my vote for best rules would be for some musings by a fellow called Jason Cone titled Philotomy's OD&D Musings over at http://www.philotomy.com/ .  These are a combination of distilled knowledge from Knights&Knaves Ale House and I guess his own thoughts and experiences running OD&D from the 3 LBB only.  I have most of the OSR clones and a few retro games like C&C and Jason Vey's Spellcraft & Swordplay, but these musings have helped my understanding and appreciation of OD&D more than anything else.

Now you can also download all these musing including a nice cover and print them out into your own digest sized sized supplement:

http://www.grey-elf.com/dnd/

Scroll down to the very bottom under "Other D&D Resources".  Pickup the other booklets too ...it's all great stuff including the "Forbidden Lore" booklet for integrading D6 Chainmail rules into OD&D combat. :)


Jason was an attendee at NTRPG Con this year, ran a game and was a panelist on the Megadungeon panel.  Pretty sharp guy, a lot of his suggestions can be used with any edition of the game, not just OD&D.

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Post Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 1:53 pm 
 

Ak'Ptui wrote:.

Now you can also download all these musing including a nice cover and print them out into your own digest sized sized supplement:

http://www.grey-elf.com/dnd/

Scroll down to the very bottom under "Other D&D Resources".  Pickup the other booklets too ...it's all great stuff including the "Forbidden Lore" booklet for integrading D6 Chainmail rules into OD&D combat. :)


Thanks for the link!  Those are pretty cool.  8O


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